As I was scrolling through my photos looking for the picture I would use for this blog, I was drawn to all the sweet pictures I have of our children and grandchildren being tenderly held and embraced by moms and dads, grandparents and aunts and uncles. I am reminded that God designed the family so that we could glimpse His kind of love for us.
But life doesn't always present us this fact. In fact, some have experienced a very difficult childhood and it makes it hard to understand that there is a good Father who loves us. But He is real and He does love and He so wants us to know.
Some have had wonderful parents. They speak highly of them often. It is good to honor our parents and thank God for them. But above all, we should be speaking highly of our Heavenly Father, pointing others to Him, especially to the ones who desperately need His embrace.
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He said, "Our Father". He wants us to know that God is our Father. Only He sees the pain, feels your hurt and loves you in a way no one else does or can.
I remember the time in my life when I made the switch to letting God parent me. I was then able to love and pray for my own parents with God's kind of love. They were wonderful parents and I always knew they loved me and for that I am thankful. But there are deep places in you that only God can know and fill. Ya'll, our parents are human. As we are.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. Psalm 68:5
The family unit is God's design. The way parents treat their children can affect the way they see their Heavenly Father. This is why it is vital for you first to know the love of the Father and receive His grace and forgiveness. Otherwise how are you going to give what you don't have?
But don't despair if you have messed up and need a do-over. Our God specializes in do-overs...every. single. day! His mercies are new every morning. Lamentations 3:23.
I wish I could take back all the times I disciplined in anger & inpatient yelling. I'm not saying to not discipline, God disciplines his children too. But always in love and for love's sake.
This steady, quiet strength that is needed comes from spending time with our Father. When our children are small, with God's help, we meet their needs. But as they grow up, we must point them to their Heavenly Father.
No one can parent like God. He is the Supreme Father, the ultimate Daddy providing love and every good gift. God is good. Let God love you and His Spirit will lead you and continue teaching you all the days of your life. He never stops being your Father. He is Holy and Mighty, yet loving, and tender and kind. He alone is to be worshipped for He alone is good.
In the story of the prodigal son, the father runs to meet the son who had run away in rebellion. Jesus told this story so that we could see the heart of the Father, our Father. And we can run to Him too. He waits with open arms.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. I John 3:1.